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Build Your Own Oscilloscope with Raspberry Pi Pico: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you never used an oscilloscope before then, this project is for you. Thanks to the project scoopy, now we can use our Pi-Pico board to build our oscilloscope. This oscilloscope is a great start towards exploring your electronics project insides. This project can be the cheapest way to own a digital oscilloscope. Let's explore what can be done with this.
Raspberry Pi Pico OSCILLOSCOPE Featured Image

Table Of Contents :

What you’ll need

  • An Android device that’s running Android version 6.0 (Marshmallow) or higher. The device must also support USB OTG (On-The-Go) – most modern phones/tablets do (if you don’t see the app when browsing the Play Store, then your device probably doesn’t support this feature).
  • A USB OTG adapter/cable compatible with your phone/tablet.
  • A Raspberry Pi Pico board.

Note:- Please use the latest versions of the App (v1.010) and Firmware (v2). Older versions of the firmware will not work with the newest version of the app and vice versa.

Install the Scoppy Android App

Install the Scoppy Android app from the Play Store.

Install the scoppy android app from play store

Install the Firmware onto your Pi Pico Board

Download the firmware onto your computer. It is here: pico-scoppy-v2.uf2. After downloading the firmware, Let’s connect the Pi Pico board to your computer by pressing the BOOTSEL button and connect it to your computer. 

After connecting the Pi Pico, you will get the notification on the bottom right side of your screen as shown in the photo click on the notification.

RPI-RP2 Folder Notification

After clicking the notification, you will find some options on the top right side of your screen as shown in the photo click on the Open Folder.

Open Pi Pico Folder

and Copy the pico-scoppy-v2.uf2 firmware file that you have downloaded. After pasting the file, The onboard LED should start blinking.

Copy the pico-scoppy-v2.uf2 firmware file

Connect the Pi Pico Board to your Phone/Tablet

Attach the OTG adapter/cable to the USB input of the Android device. The other end attaches to the USB cable you have connected to your Pi Pico.

After connecting the Pi Pico to the Phone/Tablet, Open the Scoppy app, which we have downloaded from the play store. Once the Scoppy app opens, you will get the Allow Scoppy To Access Pico? Permission,

Allow the scoppy to access the Pi Pico

then click OK to establish the connection between the Pi Pico and Scoppy app. The onboard LED of Pi Pico should stop blinking. And then, you will find the data of Pi Pico will display in the scoppy app.

Data coming from Pi Pico

In Case you did not get the “Allow Scoppy To Access Pico?” Permission Then, you may need to tap the ‘Run’ button in the app (Scoppy will either be RUNNING or STOPPED. This status is displayed at the top right of the grid).

Connect the test Signal

A 1kHz test signal is generated on GPIO 16. The inputs for Channel 1 & 2 are GPIOs 26 and 27, respectively. So to view the test signal on Channel 1 of the scope, connect GPIO 16 directly to GPIO 26. Hopefully, you’ll now see some sort of waveform in the app. The horizontal scale will probably be wrong, so adjust this using the ‘Horizontal’ + and – buttons.

Connected test Signal

Wrapping Up

The tutorial shows how easily you can build an Oscilloscope using Pi Pico
Also, this project gives electronics beginners, and hobbyists access to an ultra-cheap oscilloscope to view low voltage, low-frequency signals.

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dks
dks
Guest
September 22, 2021 1:12 pm

How fast is it? Whats the maximum of incoming signal? 1khz test signal is fine. but am I able to check 1Mhz signals?
Is there any kind of code open source that we can modify it? App/Firmware?

Dharmik
Dharmik
Admin
Reply to  dks
September 25, 2021 11:11 pm

Hello, you can find more details on this project at the scoppy Github repo.

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